video games are good, except when they're not

Day #332: Holiday Shopping FAQs

With the holidays upon us, I figured now would be a good time to answer some common questions I keep seeing around them there internets. I’m just saying, doing this in July would be kind of awkward.

The NES Classic is sold out everywhere! Where can I get one? Are they only making them for a limited time?

First and foremost, breathe. Here’s the deal with the NES Classic – you’ll get one… eventually. There will be a point in the future where you’ll walk into a store and see huge stacks of them, possibly arranged in a fun shape of some sort. You don’t need to buy one for $500 on eBay from some jerkface that bought seven of them. For that price, you can buy a legit original NES and all 30 of the games.

Are you going to get one before Christmas? Probably not, and Nintendo likes it that way. If they had plenty to go around, no one would be talking about them. Print out a jpeg and leave it under the tree for little Timmy if you have to. Ice Climbers isn’t that great. The situation is not that critical.

Is this a sign that we’re going to see huge shortages for the Switch launch too?

In short, yes. In long, the Wii launch should have already taught everyone this. This is what Nintendo does. You can wait for one of those too, unless you really need to crash someone’s rooftop party on launch day.

Should I get a PS4Pro?

Probably not. Do you already have a PS4? Do you have a 4K TV? If the answer is no followed by yes, then sure, you are the perfect candidate for one. Everyone else can wait. The PS4Pro is, honestly, kind of a crapshoot at the moment. Like any new hardware, it’s not exactly working fully as intended right now, and a vast majority of people can get by on a standard slim unit. There are a ton of good bundles out there too.

How about Playstation VR?

If you absolutely have to experience VR right now and don’t want to slum it with your phone (like me), then it’s your best option for sheer price alone. VR isn’t going anywhere, but we’re still in a rough phase where there’s just not a huge use case for most people. Chances are that big VR releases, if any, will come to PSVR, since they’re on track to have the biggest install base. Just understand that console VR is still not at the level of the PC stuff in terms of fidelity. When playing Rez in space, you probably won’t care.

Should I bother with an Xbox One with Scorpio on the way?

This one is highly conditional. We don’t actually know what Scorpio is, just what it’s promising to be, which is quite a lot. Still, we’re a solid year away from them coming out and they may very well be similar to the PS4Pro in that only a fraction of consumers will benefit from having one.

The real question you should be asking yourself is if you should bother with an Xbone if you already have a solid PC, because the answer to that is a pretty definitive no. That’s not me being all “PC Master Race” here, just that Microsoft has expanded their ecosystem to a level where you don’t actually need their console to play (most of) their exclusives anymore, you just need Windows 10. If you’re strictly console and you haven’t gotten one yet, then the new S units are really nice and already included in a lot of good sales.

I’m looking to build a gaming PC. Recommendations?

This would require an entire article on its own, and one day, I will sit down and write it. If you can’t wait, then enjoy the wonders of the internet as a resource, as building a PC is the easiest it’s ever been. We’re at a point where you can go to sites like PCPartPicker, select a pre-made build, and then watch a step-by-step video of someone putting the exact same machine together in front of you. Don’t be intimidated. PC gaming is in a really good place right now and it’s never been easier to get into.

Why don’t you ever call?

I thought we agreed to see other people, Melissa. How did you get this number? I’m changing the locks again.